Last Updated: May 24, 2022

This article is related to attribution modelling in Google Analytics. If you are brand new to attribution modelling then I would suggest reading this article first: Beginners Guide to Google Analytics Attribution Modeling.

I introduced the concept of view-through conversions in the article: Understanding view-through conversions in Google Ads and explained in great detail, how and when such conversions are recorded and reported.

In the present article, I am going to explain, how these conversions can be tracked in Google Analytics.

Importance of view-through conversions

Not all people click on display ads after viewing them.

But this does not mean that they are not impacted by such ads at all, that display advertising plays no role in influencing the buying behaviour of your customers.

However, when it comes to measuring the impact of display advertising in driving conversions, we just can’t rely on faith or ‘correlation is causation’ theory. We need data.

Traditional tracking solutions (including standard Google Analytics) can measure and report ad impressions but they are not very good at tying these impressions to conversions.

If we could know, how ad impressions are driving conversions, what role do they play in a conversion path, we would be in a better position to understand the performance of display advertising esp. in the event where there is little to no ad clicks data available.

The ad impression which results in a conversion is called an impression conversion or view-through conversion.

Google records and reports view-through conversions only for Google Display Network (GDN) ads and YouTube video ads.

It does not record and report view-through conversions for search network ads.

When a user views GDN ad or YouTube video ad but does not click it and then later visit your website to complete a conversion, then such type of conversion can be reported as ‘view-through’ conversion.

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Introduction to Google Display Network (GDN) impression reporting

You can see view-through conversions data in your Google Analytics multi-channel funnel reports via the GDN impression reporting feature.

Through GDN impression reporting, advertisers can measure the impact of unclicked but viewed GDN ads (display ad impressions) in driving conversions.

The GDN impression reporting is available only for non-text GDN display ads (which includes rich media ads) and is available only in Google Analytics multi-channel funnels reports.

Criteria for using GDN impression reporting

In order to use GDN impression reporting, the following conditions must first be met:

1. You have got an active Google Ads account through which you are running Google Display Network campaigns.
2. Conversion tracking is implemented in your Google Ads account.
3. Your Google Ads account is linked to your GA premium account.
4. You use DoubleClick Campaign Manager (formerly known as Doubleclick for advertisers or DFA) or DoubleClick Bid Manager (DBM)
5. Conversion tracking and/or ecommerce tracking is implemented in your GA premium account.
6. Your Google Analytics tracking code supports display advertising.
7. Your privacy policy clearly tells your website users, that you use GDN impression reporting (not a technical requirement but required according to Google policy)

How to enable GDN impression reporting

The GDN impression reporting needs to be enabled before it can be used. It is not available by default even if you are using GA premium.

Also, GDN impression reporting is not available to all. There used to be a way to get access to this reporting by requesting Google, to whitelist your GA account but that ability is long gone now.

The impression reporting now is available only to GA premium customers who either use Doubleclick Campaign Manager or Doubleclick Bid Manager (DBM).

Just using GA Premium is not enough to become eligible for GDN impression reporting. You also need to use either DFA or DBM, as far as I know. 

Once you have met the criteria for using GDN impression reporting, contact your GA Premium/360 account manager and ask him to link your DCM/DBM account to your Google Analytics account and activate the GDN impression reporting.  

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GDN impression data in multi-channel funnels reports

Once the GDN impression reporting is enabled, you will see the following new features in your multi-channel funnel reports:

#1 The multi-channel funnel overview report will start showing the following, instead of assisted conversions:

• Click assisted conversions
• Impression assisted conversions
• Rich media assisted conversions

Note: In the screenshot above, 66,758 conversions represent last click conversions which can include both goal conversions and ecommerce transactions.

Click assisted conversions – the number of conversions in which non-text display ad click assisted.

Impression assisted conversions – the number of conversions in which non-text display ad impression assisted.

Rich media assisted conversions – the number of conversions in which rich media interaction assisted.

Rich media interactions include:

• Click on the video play, pause and resume button.
• Turning a video ad to full screen
• Expanding an ad

Note(1): Rich media ads are the dynamic image ads (the one which can change/animate). Youtube video ad is an example of a rich media ad.

Note(2): Assisted conversions metric that you see in the Assisted Conversions report is not the sum of click assisted conversions, impression assisted conversions and rich media assisted conversions.

This is because there is usually a lot of overlapping of conversion counting among click assisted conversions, impression assisted conversions and rich media assisted conversions.

Assisted conversions metric that you see in Assisted Conversions report are the conversions other than the last click conversions.

#2 You will see a new drop-down menu in all of your multi-channel funnel reports (except the overview report) called the ‘Interaction Type’:

The ‘Interaction Type’ menu contains the following interactions (touchpoints):

• #1 Impression (unclicked non-text display ad impression)
• #2 Click (or ad click)
• #3 Direct
• #4 Rich Media

#3 In the Top Conversion Paths report, you may see the following two new touchpoints/interactions in conversion paths:

1. Static image display impression (denoted by an eye icon)
2. Rich media display impression (denoted by a video icon)

Without GDN impression reporting, this conversion path may look like the one below:

Thus without GDN impression reporting, your conversion paths may contain missing touchpoints and you may not get a true picture of your customers’ purchase journey.

Through the ‘Interaction Type’ menu, you can filter the Top Conversion Path report based on how users interacted with your display ads:

Impression interactions/touchpoints

When you select ‘impression’ from the ‘Interaction Type’ drop-down menu, you can see all the conversion paths in which unclicked non-text display ad impressions assisted.

In other words, you can see all the conversion paths in which users completed a conversion on your website after viewing (but not clicking) your non-text display ads.

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Click interactions/touchpoints

When you select ‘click’ from the ‘Interaction Type’ drop-down menu, you can see all the conversion paths in which non-text display ad clicks assisted.

In other words, you can see all the conversion paths in which users completed a conversion on your website after clicking on your non-text display ads.

Direct interactions/touchpoints

When you select ‘direct’ from the ‘Interaction Type’ drop-down menu, you can see all the conversion paths in which unclicked non-text display ad impressions resulted in direct conversions on your website.  

In other words, you can see all the conversion paths in which users visited your website directly and completed a conversion on your website after viewing (but not clicking) your non-text display ads.

Rich media interactions/touchpoints

When you select rich media from the ‘Interaction Type’ drop-down menu, you can see all the conversion paths in which rich media interactions assisted.

In other words, you can see all the conversion paths in which users completed a goal conversion on your website after interacting with your rich media ads.

Note: If you have not set up rich media ads, then you won’t see the ‘Rich Media’ interaction option in the ‘Interaction Type’ drop-down menu.

#4 After GDN impression reporting is enabled, your Time Lag multi-channel funnel report will contain the ‘interaction type’ drop-down menu through which you can filter this report, based on how users interacted with your display ads:

The Time Lag report is used to determine how long it takes (in terms of the number of days) for users to complete a conversion on your website.

Through the ‘interaction type’ drop-down menu, you can choose to select only ‘impression’ interaction and can determine, how long it took (in terms of the number of days) for users to convert on your website after viewing your display (but without clicking on it).

For example, when I selected only ‘Impression’ interaction from the ‘interaction type’ drop-down menu, I concluded from the Time Lag report that, it usually takes 12-30 days for the user to convert on my website after viewing my display ads (but without clicking on them).

This is the kind of insight, you can get from the ‘Time Lag’ report once you have enabled GDN impression reporting.

#5 Similarly, after GDN impression reporting is enabled, your Path Length multi-channel funnel report will contain the ‘interaction type’ drop-down menu through which you can filter this report, based on how users interacted with your display ads:

The Path Length report shows how many interactions/touchpoints it took for users to complete a conversion on your website. 

Through the ‘interaction type’ drop-down menu, you can choose to select say only ‘rich media’ interaction and can determine, how long it took (in terms of the number of interactions) for users to convert on your website after viewing your rich media display ads (but without clicking on them).

This is the kind of insight, you can get from the Path Length report once you have enabled GDN impression reporting.

Other articles on attribution modelling

1. How to analyse and report the true value of your SEO Campaign
2. How to valuate Display Advertising through Attribution Modelling
3. Understanding Shopping Carts for Analytics and Conversion Optimization
4. 6 Keys to Digital Success in Attribution Modelling
5. Google Analytics Attribution Modeling Tutorial
6. How to Measure and Improve the Quality of SEO Traffic through Google Analytics
7. How to explain attribution modelling to your clients
8. Default and Custom Attribution Models in Google Analytics
9. Understanding Missing Touchpoints in Attribution Modelling
10. What You Should Know about Historical Data in Web Analytics
11. Model Comparison Report Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
12. Data-Driven Attribution Model in Google Analytics – Tutorial
13. Conversion Lag Report Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
14. Selecting the Best Attribution Model for Inbound Marketing
15. How to do ROI Analysis in Google Analytics
16. Conversion Credit Models Guide – Google Analytics Attribution
17. Introduction to Nonline Analytics – True Multi Channel Analytics
18. Conversion Types Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
19. Attribution Channels Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
20. Differences Between Google Attribution & Multi-Channel Funnel Reports
21. Introduction to TV Attribution in Google Analytics Attribution 360
22. Conversion Credit Distribution for Attribution Models in Google Analytics
23. Conversion Paths Report Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
24. Attribution Model Comparison Tool in Google Analytics
25. Touchpoint Analysis in Google Analytics Attribution Modelling
26. Attributed Conversions & Attributed Revenue Explained in Google Attribution
27. Which Attribution Model to use in Google Analytics?
28. Google Attribution Access and User Permissions – Tutorial
29. Conversion Path Length Report Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
30. How to set up a data-driven attribution model in Google Analytics
31. View-Through Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics
32. Offline Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics – Tutorial
33. How to Create Custom Attribution Model in Google Analytics
34. 8 Google Analytics Conversions Segments You Must Use
35. You are doing Google Analytics all wrong. Here is why
36. How to Use ZMOT to Increase Conversions and Sales Exponentially
37. Connected Properties Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
38. Marketing Mix Modelling or Attribution Modelling. Which one is for you?
39. How is attribution modelling helpful for ecommerce and non-ecommerce websites?
40. Conversion Time & Interaction Time Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
41. How to Allocate Budgets in Multi Channel Marketing
42. How Does Attribution Work?
43. Data-Driven Attribution Model Explorer in Google Analytics
44. Introduction to Attribution Beta – Attribution Project in Google Analytics